Ofwat, England and Wales water watchdog, urges Thames Water to make immediate changes to their financial performance.
The water regulator also named Southern Water, SES, and South East Water among those needing to make urgent changes to their financial structure.
This comes after Ofwat’s latest annual report, which revealed that £1.4 billion was paid to shareholders in the previous year across all water firms.
“There are some companies that did not fully meet our expectation in explaining dividend decisions and payments,” Ofwat said.
Since Thames Water is Britain’s biggest water supplier, this could become a major cause for concern for its many customers.
Ofwat managed to salvage the situation after an emergency package of £4.6 billion was provided to them by shareholders. In a recent post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Ofwat’s CEO expressed his relief:
The water sector has attracted £4.6bn in additional money from shareholders since 2020, with £1.4bn in 2022-23, following our requirement for water companies to secure their long-term resilience https://t.co/lFGvo8gmeh pic.twitter.com/9UlCyHaDCB
— Ofwat (@Ofwat) October 26, 2023
He also stated, “Where we have seen cause for concern, we have also seen some companies responding to the challenge and we expect them to continue to work on improving their financial resilience.”
